Tag Archives: digital edge

For more than 20 years, organisations have been running their networks pretty much the same way. But recently, that way has become increasingly difficult, fragmented, and expensive. Modern networks need to be both more integrated, and yet more flexible.

So a year ago, we launched our most ambitious network re-think in our history: our intent-based networking offering, Cisco DNA, and its centrepiece control software, DNA Centre. It treats every network device — be it wired, wireless, or wide-area — as part of a unified fabric, giving IT a simpler, more cost-effective way to take control of one of their businesses’ most valuable assets: network infrastructure.

DNA Centre makes it possible for network operators to react to business needs and security threats at machine speed, across their entire network. This means, first, that they don’t have to rely on time-consuming human-powered workflows, making changes one network device at a time; they can interact with the network as a single fabric. And second, that when there’s an issue with the network (like a cyber attack), the network can react to it in real time.

More recently, we rolled out DNA Assurance, which provides deep visibility and insights into everything that happens on a network, and everything that has happened previously. When there’s an issue to solve, it gives network administrators the capability to go back in time and see exactly what was happening at the precise moment that the user or device experienced a problem. It makes troubleshooting immeasurably faster, and more proactive, than it is today.

Now DNA Centre is an Open PlatformAnd now we’re opening the network fabric itself to developers. DNA Centre’s new open platform capabilities mean all its powerful, networkwide automation and assurance tools are available to our partners and customers. With the network as a programmable platform, they will be able to make IT and business applications run better and more securely, deliver better experiences to employees and customers, and extract the value of the data that their networks are collecting.

The first uses of the new DNA Centre platform capabilities will be IT applications. Already, the IT service management system ServiceNow has an integration into DNA Centre. With it, DNA Centre can automatically create trouble tickets in ServiceNow. The tickets are enriched with insights that IT personnel can use to resolve network, user, and application issues. IT operators can also trigger remediation events using ServiceNow, that take advantage of DNA Centre’s reach across the network. Together, DNA Centre and ServiceNow can create and close out a ticket — faster and more accurately than either system could independently.

Our platform for intent-based networking is built on DNA Centre. It allows customers and partners to develop network-centric applications without having to program devices directly.

As more customers learn what DNA Centre can do, its applicability will extend into line-of-business applications. For example, new platform capabilities will expose location data from network devices, which can be used to dramatically improve logistics. In healthcare, location data (for personnel and equipment), can improve care and lower costs.

Open to IdeasWe’re proud to be able to open up this rich and valuable resource to our customers. But it’s still early in the evolution of intent-based networking, and we want to help people learn and share new ways to make their assets work better for their organisations. Our DevNet program is where this all comes together. We have 500,000 developers on the program already, and we continue to add resources to help everyone grow. We also launched this week three new programs for DevNet: Ecosystem Exchange, Code Exchange, and DNA Developer Centre.

Cisco’s Services group is also working to help business leaders take full advantage of the new DNA Centre platform.

The new platform capabilities that DNA Centre offers are based on a flexible architecture that will make new business processes and flows possible, both through the control it enables and the data it makes available. We can’t anticipate all the innovations that people will build on it. We’ve already been surprised by what some of our earliest partners have done.

DNA Centre is our most ambitious and flexible platform ever. It builds on 30 years of knowledge across all areas of networking, on all the rich relationships we have with customers and partners, and on top of the vision our engineers have about where networking is going in the near future. We hope you find it valuable.

By Scott Harrell
Cisco Senior Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Networking Business
This post is from the Cisco Executive Platform blog

Why is there so much hype around the proposed IEEE standard? We can sum that up in three words; speed, agility, capacity. But, three words may not do the new Wi-Fi standard justice, so read on for a more indepth look at why 802.11ax is a game changer.

802.11ax, the latest IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, is expected to be released in early 2019. Because of its speed (four to ten times faster than 802.11ac) and capacity it’s going to become a critical component of mobile-first strategies. While 802.11ax will be used everywhere, it’s especially intended to solve wireless connectivity problems in high-density edge environments such as transportation hubs, office buildings, sports venues, etc.

802.11ax is a game changer (literally) because it will be able to accommodate a large number of users and IoT devices accessing the network simultaneously. Think about going to the big game. Before it starts, you have no trouble accessing the internet. Then the big play happens and you have thousands of people trying to get online to tweet, snapchat, text and otherwise share the news with friends not lucky enough to snag a ticket to the game. The result? Spinning, spinning and more spinning. Frustrated, you give up. 802.11ax will end the frustration and get you online pronto.

Reduce network congestionAX is expected to have a maximum data rate of 1.3 Gbps, will operate in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies and will be backward compatible with 802.11ac/n.

To achieve the significant speed and capacity increase, AX will layer MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output) with orthogonal frequency-division multiple access technology. This enables a large number of devices to use the same access point at the same time rather than sequentially. Imagine a cashier in a store being able to wait on four people at the same time. While customer one pulls out the credit card, customer two is being rung up, and so on.

Technologically, AX will provide more efficient spectrum utilisations as well. It creates broader channels and splits them into narrower subchannels, each with a different frequency. That enables eight simultaneous streams, which can then be split into four additional streams boosting the effective bandwidth per user by four times.

In addition, 802.11ax is truly next generation Wi-Fi with the ability to accommodate an equal amount of simultaneous uploads and downloads. Previous generations of Wi-Fi were based on the premise that there would be mostly downloads rather than uploads, which was true. Not anymore.

AX and IoT802.11ax will be a boon for Internet of Things sensors and equipment in congested environments, such as hospitals and smart buildings where you’ll have tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of devices demanding simultaneous access. It won’t just increase the speed of the network, it will also quadruple the speeds of the individual wireless clients.

Extend battery lifeA side benefit of 802.11ax is that it will improve battery life of devices. A time-wake feature enables access points to tell devices when to go to sleep and when to wake. Although these may be very short periods of time, seconds, it adds up over time and results in extended battery life. If you’re enabling hundreds of IoT sensors, that’s a big deal.

When to upgradeThe answer is upgrade when you need to, which could be now in terms of accommodating more users and improving wireless capacity. Although the IEEE 802.11 releases new standards approximately every five to six years (g in 2003, n in 2009 and ac in 2013), forward-thinking IT administrators typically upgrade their wireless networks every three years. It’s estimated that 802.11ax will have wide-spread adoption by 2020, but manufacturers are already producing equipment with ax chipsets. Once 802.11ax is ratified, compliance can be as simple as a firmware update. So if you need more speed, bandwidth and capacity, don’t wait.

If you’re thinking about your mobile-first strategy, talk to Black Box now. We can help you make mobility happen with the right intelligent edge foundational technology. When you enable mobility, you enable connectivity at the digital edge.

Amazon recently opened its revolutionary, no-check out convenience/grocery store, Amazon Go, at its headquarters in Seattle, WA. The store, announced in December 2016, opened to the public in January 2018 after beta testing for a year with employees.

We don’t know how the concept of a no-check out store will change the face of retail in the future. But for now, it’s truly marketing at the intelligent digital edge, the place where people and devices (and groceries) meet.

What is Amazon Go?

The Amazon Go concept is that customers can walk in, pick up items off the shelf and “Just Walk Out.” There are no baskets, no registers and no cashiers. But there are plenty of employees: shelf stockers, ID checkers in the wine and beer section and chefs making sandwiches and grab-and-go meals.

Here’s how it works. Customers download the Amazon Go app, which is linked to the customer’s Amazon account and the associated credit card. As they enter the 1800 square foot store, they scan their smartphone code at one of several glass security gates that are futuristic versions of subway turnstiles.

Shoppers then pick up the items they want. Once selected, the system adds the items to a virtual cart. If a shopper puts an item back on the shelf, it’s automatically deleted from the virtual cart. As customers leave the store, the app automatically charges the account and Amazon sends an electronic receipt logging what was purchased, how much it was and how long the customer was in the store.

Dilip Kumar, Amazon Go vice president of technology said “People are rushed. They’re in a hurry. People don’t like waiting in lines.” He added that the store concept is “to be respectful of your time as a customer.” The idea is to create an “effortless experience for customers.”

How Does it Work?

Amazon isn’t saying how the system works other than it combines computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion technologies, much like the technologies that guide self-driving cars. Kumar says the idea behind the technology is to “push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning.”

While the AI and machine-learning technology to make Amazon Go work was four years in the making, the foundational technology that enables the intelligence at the digital edge is based on wired and wireless connectivity.

Walk into Amazon Go and look up. You’ll see a hundred black, boxy cameras covering the ceiling. These cameras do the computer vision work, detect motion and see what interactions customers have with the shelves. (Amazon did say the cameras include infrared sensors, but that it is not employing facial recognition technology.) The cameras provide seamless detection as the shoppers move from area to area in the store. The computer vision enables computers to process the information and determine which items were selected.

The sensor fusion technology is embedded in the store shelves. It detects motion and registers when a customer picks something up or puts it back on the shelf. Because the system knows everything by its weight, customers can’t “accidentally” pick up two of an item. The last part of the technology is the artificial intelligence or the machine-learning algorithms, which enables the computers to determine what the item is and to learn by continuously collecting and analysing data.

What’s Next?

The entire concept of Amazon Go brings up some questions. Does Amazon plan to roll-out this technology to its recently acquired Whole Foods stores or to its current 13 brick-and-mortar bookstores? The company says there are no plans for a national rollout and it plans on using the no-register shopping technology only at this Amazon Go. There are no more Amazon Go stores planned at this point.

In addition, the data collection and tracking technology Amazon is using can raise some privacy concerns. The data Amazon is collecting from its customers will accumulate exponentially over time. How will Amazon use that data? What about Amazon Prime customers? Will Amazon Go purchases data be incorporated in regular Amazon shopping suggestions and recommendations? Every time an Amazon Go customer visits the store, the Go system learns more about their shopping behaviour and preferences. As a smart marketer, it’s a good guess that Amazon will use this data, tailor products and services for its customers and offer them a more engaging, personalised shopping experience at the digital edge in the store and online.

Foundational Edge Technology

Engineering the right foundational and enabling technologies for a smart store like Amazon Go is more than artificial intelligence and machine learning. It’s the right connectivity environment that makes it all possible. For instance, it’s the wired infrastructure that connects and powers the cameras. It’s the wireless capabilities that enable the system to talk to your smartphone. It’s the IT framework that provides 99.9% uptime. It’s a partner that understands the intelligent edge and can help you realise your digital transformation to some really cool technologies. Learn more at BlackBox.co.uk/Intelligent-Digital-Edge

In this post, we’ll take a look at how artificial intelligence is the epitome of the digital edge and some predictions on where it’s going in 2018. In a future post, we’ll look at how artificial intelligence is being utilised in different industries.

Artificial Intelligence Today and Everyday
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now, not in some distant future. In 2018, we are going to see an explosion of AI in all industries and all verticals.

AI has changed how we work, play and live and its impact is growing—rapidly. AI improves the customer experience, increases productivity, protects the public, accelerates research, diagnoses patients, prevents machine failures, analyses data, recommends music, and the list goes on and on.

As consumers and professionals, we are the drivers of artificial intelligence. We expect personalisation and unprecedented levels of quality, agility and speed – and AI provides it.

We interact with artificial intelligence every day, although we may not realise it. Every time you talk to Siri or Alexa, you’re interacting with artificial intelligence. At the high-end, there are self-driving Uber cars. In between, there are IoT devices everywhere from factories and smart buildings to your home and car.

Every artificial intelligence touch is computing at the digital edge. It’s literally the place where people and devices meet. It is machines working and thinking for us. Analysing data. Giving us information. Making decisions for us and ultimately, making our lives easier on the spot—at the edge.

What is artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is automating processes that previously required human interaction. A high-end example is the aforementioned driverless Uber car (which our US colleagues can get in downtown Pittsburgh, PA). A simpler example is a chess-playing computer.

AI is often thought of as machine learning when it is actually a subset of it. AI is the ability of a machine or computer to think and learn from experience. Instead of robotic automation, AI learns from deep data and adapts through progressive, deep learning algorithms to let the data do the programming. For example, Alexa and Siri are all based on deep learning.

AI takes data analysis from hindsight to foresight with a greater ability to predict events, such as monitoring HVAC systems and sending out maintenance crews to prevent system failures. Another example might be a financial system that prevents fraud instead of just detecting it. But AI is very task specific. The system designed to detect financial fraud can’t monitor HVAC systems.

The future of artificial intelligence

AI is big and getting bigger. The artificial intelligence market is predicted to be a US$100 billion industry by 2025.

In a recent survey, 75% of executives say AI will be actively implemented in the next two years. It’s estimated that in 2018 alone, 1.3 million industrial robots will enter service and that data created by IoT devices will be 277 times higher than the amount of data being transmitted to data centres from end-user devices.

Consider this. Tech giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Baidu have already spent over US$8 billion on dedicated AI investments. Recently, Sundar Pichair, Google CEO said “Particularly over the last three years, we have felt that with machine learning and artificial intelligence, we can do these things better than ever before. They are progressing at an incredible rate.”

Artificial intelligence is the intelligent digital edge. Intelligent devices do more than simply collect and mindlessly deliver data. They are able to process data on the spot instead of sending it to the cloud for analysis. Whether in industry, public spaces or even in your home or car, IoT devices are beginning to effectively analyse data in real-time—and at the edge. AI is at the heart of the digital transformation.

Whether it’s as simple as the wireless in your home to power Alexa and machine learning sensors on the factory floor to complex medical diagnosis and even self-driving cars, AI is driving new business outcomes and has forever changed our expectations of what’s possible. The intelligent digital edge is the foundational technology that enables AI and all the promises it holds in every facet of life. For instance, Uber has hired hundreds of self-driving car experts from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. Currently, AI experts are the most on-demand hires on Wall Street. In the not so distant past, these types of jobs didn’t exist.

The question now is how can businesses use AI to give them a competitive edge. AI is no longer an option. It’s critical for organisations to realise AI’s full potential and to take advantage of the specific strengths of humans and machines. Executives need to consider where AI can create the most long-lasting and profound advantage. To do that, they need the right partner to help them embrace digital transformation and leverage the right technologies at the intelligent digital edge.

To learn more about how we can help you with your transformation at the Intelligent Digital Edge, go to Blackbox.co.uk or contact us.

We live in a world where mobile connectivity is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity. According to recent reports, 70% of businesses will be completely mobile by 2020. The need for reliable, quality connections anywhere spans from the consumer’s daily life to the business world and everywhere in-between. The companies that will succeed in the long run are the ones that create a mobile-first strategy that focuses on the underlying technologies that will enable the experiences expected by today’s mobile users.

Unfortunately for most organisations, the wireless infrastructure needed to meet user and business demands is lacking. It’s time to rethink mobility initiatives in the larger context of digital transformation. When it comes to digital transformation, mobility is top of mind for CIOs and their IT teams. There is a sole focus from these stakeholders to adapt to the proliferation of mobile devices and applications.

Whether you need to ensure more speed, capacity and reliability for your mobile business-critical applications, or accelerate your next-gen Wi-Fi deployment — or in most cases both — the intelligent digital edge is your answer.

The intelligent digital edge is that space in and around virtually any facility where people and devices meet. It’s where users are located, where data is created and consumed and where applications are shared. This is where the real opportunity is for digital transformation, and wireless is a fundamental capability in enabling the digital edge.

However, with great opportunity comes great challenges. Capacity has reached critical mass at the edge and it is no longer acceptable to provide simple connectivity. Connectivity must be mobile with mission-critical performance that can be dialled up on demand driving efficient and uninterrupted operations.

Comprehensive wireless networking expertise is required to optimise Wi-Fi networks and integrate 4G LTE (5G) service accessibility and reliability. It is important to note that wireless requirements can vary across enterprises. For those markets that are truly mission-critical, such as first responders and military, there are also public safety communication solutions to consider. The key is a purpose-built, mobile-first solution for your organisation’s specific needs. Mobility is not a one size fits all solution. With the right mix of intelligent edge solutions and by leveraging different types of wireless technology, you can mobilise more people and devices, dial-up capacity as you need to and keep the information flowing in and out of your enterprise.

Find the right mobility solution at Black Box. We can optimise the design, streamline the deployment and deliver ongoing management to establish a wireless network that you can rely on now and well into the future. When you unlock the digital edge, you set the groundwork for secure, uniform, robust mobile experiences that are expected anywhere and everywhere people and devices meet in your facilities.

The rise of mobility and IoT can be daunting as you take the next steps to drive your digital transformation forward. The good news is that through the Intelligent Digital Edge, companies can secure a path to a scalable and streamlined digital transformation that taps into all that these technologies can offer; however, long-term success is contingent upon looking beyond the must-needed technologies and system implementation. It’s simply not enough to design and deploy an intelligent solution at the digital edge.

Once a system has been deployed, this is just the beginning in what is possible. To fully take advantage of what the Intelligent Digital Edge can deliver, companies must adhere to ongoing and proactive management with the tailored expertise that takes the burden of IT and operational challenges off the table. By alleviating these burdens, businesses can focus on what’s most important and what they do best – their business.

Consider the architecture necessary to succeed at the digital edge. There is foundational technology like mission-critical mobility with Wi-Fi, 4G/5G, and public safety. There is also the implementation of intelligent networking, featuring structured cabling and carrier/internet connectivity. Plus, a robust network and physical security are essential.

But even after that’s in place, an additional layer of enabling technology aimed at fulfilling specific business outcomes must be ingrained into the design. This layer can include location solutions to permit in-store wayfinding and inventory optimisation, unified communication and smart board solutions that enhance team collaboration, or specialised IoT devices that drive new outcomes.

The upshot is that even once installed, the job is nowhere near over when it comes to ensuring that an Intelligent Digital Edge performs smoothly and consistently over time. To do that, proactive managed services are vital, and to get this right means tailoring support to unique needs – needs that can include handling day-to-day operations like service desk, monitoring, maintenance, and trouble shooting. This also requires the transparency of best-in-class service level agreements.

Reaching these management goals necessitates a large staff of technicians with a depth of knowledge and experience. For most businesses, this means going outside the organisation to align itself with a partner who can deliver support regardless of the region. Whether in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, or Asia, the right management will make sure performance is consistent across all networks and devices.

Embracing the Intelligent Digital Edge isn’t just about a tailored design or installing the best solutions (albeit these two components are integral to the process); it’s about staying in front of changes and having the perfect team in place to anticipate evolving needs. For more information on how great management can support superior design and deployment, speak with a Black Box representative about making your Intelligent Digital Edge pain-free long after it’s deployed.

Every forward-looking business knows that to effectively compete they must shift their thinking to the Digital Edge. In fact, 60 percent of executives believe that failure to adapt to hyper-connectivity is their company’s biggest risk.

As discussed in our previous blog, the first step in creating an Intelligent Digital Edge is developing a design roadmap that not only accounts for an organisation’s specific goals and requirements but is also nimble enough to adapt to wider, ever-changing shifts in both technology and business needs.

That said, putting a rock-solid design plan in place is merely a first step; equally important is identifying the deployment solution that is uniform, consistent, and scalable. This is a stage in the process that should never be taken lightly. The larger and more broadly deployed your enterprise, the greater the complexity – and the greater the risk of dissatisfying customers and employees due to inconsistent and unpredictable user experiences.

More than 70 percent of most IT organisations’ time is spent simply ‘keeping the lights on’, according to 2016 Global Operating Model Research from Accenture Strategy. As a result, one of the biggest impediments to deployment for many organisations is the commitment it takes to focus on the physical roll-out.

There are best practices which utilise agile processes that consistently save clients time, headaches, and money. In most cases, a true partner that can establish a centralised command and control location to optimise deployments by geography during the planning and execution phases, and can provide uniform on-site standards and localised deliverables tailored to regions, will be the difference in ensuring that every solution is deployed the same every time.

Whether a deployment is scaling from the 100s to the 1000s or from the 10,000s to the 100,000s, a key to assuring a business is getting it right is aligning itself with a partner that boasts a depth and breadth of experience at the digital edge – this means a partner that has extensive experience updating hundreds of locations worldwide every night. It also means a company with a large army of highly-trained technicians – on a global scale – who can guarantee that any wrinkles in deployment can be smoothed quickly and competently.

The sooner you deploy your Intelligent Digital Edge, the faster you can unlock the value that digital transformation can deliver for your enterprise. To get started, you can speak with a Black Box representative about how we can devise and execute a deployment strategy that will seamlessly deliver your digital transformation

We understand. You’re doing your best to deliver the technologies users demand across the enterprise. However, as we covered in our previous blog post, with the influx of IoT and mobility, challenges at the digital edge may be standing between you and your digital transformation goals. The simple fact is, before you can create more interactive, immersive and scalable user experience, you need to embrace the Intelligent Digital Edge.

However, not every digital edge approach is created equal. How can you ensure the design of the digital edge will meet your organisation’s needs now and in the future?

A digital roadmap that is powerfully aligned to your organisation’s unique goals and needs will help you to quickly adapt to changing technology and business requirements – and supercharge innovation, scale and velocity.

The roadmap begins with a fine-tuned discovery process that can expose critical business drivers and align them with sound technical solutions, including mission-critical mobility, intelligent networking and built-in security. It should also identify the right mix of enabling technologies to create the high-performance experiences that transform businesses. Finally, even the most innovative roadmaps need to be deployed with precision to enable consistent and repeatable experiences.

The larger and more distributed your enterprise, the greater the complexity. To transform at scale, you need a partner who can deploy both nationally and globally with speed and agility—regardless of the amount of technology or the number of locations.

As deployments move from 1000s of locations to 10,000s of IoT devices in a single location, Black Box is there. And once deployed, we offer extensive managed services solutions that are proactive and tailored to meet your unique needs.

Fuelled by mobility and IoT, digital transformation is under way in every industry and in companies of all sizes. In fact, 20-billion devices are expected to be added over the next five years – that is nearly half a million devices per hour. In addition to the explosion of devices and connections, user expectations are evolving. Users demand easy, real-time connections to digital services and experiences wherever they are and on any device. In fact, more than half of all digital strategists cite “evolving customer behaviours and preferences” as the primary catalyst for change.

Companies that will come out ahead in digital transformation are replacing legacy solutions and embracing the Intelligent Digital Edge. The digital edge is where people, data, and devices meet – in an office, a retail store, a hospital, or a manufacturing site. Adding intelligence to the digital edge is proven to accelerate digital transformations and deliver the foundation needed to keep pace with evolving technology demands.

To successfully digitally transform at the edge, companies need to adopt and deploy two types of technologies: foundational and enabling. Foundational technology lays the ground work for organisations to be future-ready and rapidly adopt new, enabling technology to drive specific business outcomes.

Companies must be able to design and deploy both the foundational and enabling technologies with uniformity and consistency to deliver the results end-users demand and once deployed, they must be able to manage the technology.

Black Box can help. With more than 40 years of experience connecting people, devices, and data, we are the trusted digital partner to bring intelligence to the edge. By understanding the intricacies and nuances of each customer’s business, we deliver industry-specific designs, global deployment capabilities and managed services that help companies tap into an Intelligent Digital Edge to accelerate digital transformations.

We engineer Intelligent Digital Edge solutions that enable our customers to mobilise more people and devices, leverage more data, dial-up capacity as needed, and defend the information flowing in and out of your enterprise.

Today’s business landscape is quickly evolving with IoT on the rise and anytime, anywhere, any device mobile user experiences in high demand. The companies that digitally transform to embrace the evolving digital world will succeed, and those that don’t will be left behind with catastrophic results. To meet this challenge head on, companies must adjust strategies and embrace the Intelligent Digital Edge.

The digital edge is that space in and around office buildings, hotels, factories, hospitals – virtually any facility where people and devices meet. It’s where users are located, where data is created and consumed, and where applications are shared. This is where the real opportunity is to make digital transformation happen; however, to be effective, the digital edge needs to be transformed through more intelligent solutions.

The exponential explosion in the number and diversity of devices and applications has made one thing abundantly clear – legacy IT architectures and deployment models are simply not adequate. Complexity challenges are overwhelming network, computing, and staff IT resources while the technical demands just keep escalating.

To drive superior experiences, ensure capacity flexibility, and secure uninterrupted service, a new digital edge is needed – one that is driven by intelligence. When designed, deployed, and managed correctly, the Intelligent Digital Edge enables:

High-performance User Experience: Bridging the physical and digital worlds, experiences at the edge are localised and uniform across all locations. Digital and real-time in nature, it scales to leverage IoT and analytics to drive business outcomes. By being analytics-enabled it drives better user experiences and real-time business decisions.

Mobile-first Capacity: Capacity has reached critical mass and it is no longer acceptable to provide simple connectivity. Anytime mobility at the edge is required for uninterrupted operations – all with mission-critical performance and on-demand capacity to drive efficient and unhindered operations. The intelligent edge is software-driven to enable mobile workflows while dynamically optimising capacity and traffic.

Built-in Security: Theft of data or loss of connectivity can be devastating. The Intelligent Digital Edge has security built in, so you can see and prevent threats and interruptions before they happen. Providing and protecting the edge eliminates downtime and ensures timely decision-making in highly-regulated and latency-sensitive settings.

We understand that many companies lack the existing skillsets, resources, and expertise to design, deploy, and manage at the edge to deliver a scalable digital transformation quickly and consistently. This is why Black Box is the trusted digital partner. Our proven success in connecting people, devices, and data – right where they need to be for maximum impact – is possible by bringing together our global team of skilled technicians, unique partnerships, processes, and network operating centres. Our industry-specific consulting, mission-critical designs, global deployment capabilities, and customer dedication is a combination that sets Black Box apart.

When you unlock the power of the Intelligent Digital Edge, you enable secure, uniform, mobile, future-ready experiences that are available anywhere people and devices meet in your facilities.